Tummy Time!

Tummy time! Tummy time! Tummy time! I can not stress the importance of tummy time enough! We found out the hard way with our first baby, how important tummy time really is. In my opinion, doctors, family, friends, and the internet do not express how important it is to do tummy time with your baby. It is honestly one of the most important things you need to be doing with your baby. Placing your baby on their tummy helps them develop their neck and shoulder muscles which is crucial for giving them the strength to hit their developmental milestones. Such as, rolling over, sitting up, crawling, and walking. Placing toys in front of them as well helps with fine motor skill development like reaching, grabbing, and pointing.

The other very important aspect of tummy time is to get your baby off the back of their head. New babies have a very soft head that is still growing and shaping. When your baby lays 90% of the time on the back of their head, the head starts to flatten. This is what happened to our first baby. I was not confident my 1 week old baby could do tummy time or that he was not ready for such an activity. I mean, after all, he was just so small and fragile. Oh momma, how wrong I was! Yes! Absolutely! Start tummy time as soon as you get home with your new baby. They can do it, just start out small with short intervals so they don’t get too fussy and if they seem to not like it at all, that’s okay, find something to distract them. My son hated being on his tummy! As soon as I even thought about putting him on his tummy, he would just start crying and fussing until I picked him up which lead to him not getting very much tummy time. Finally, I figured out he loved the movie Hercules, so I would put the movie on and put him on his tummy facing the T.V. and he would do his tummy time while watching the movie. There are all different tricks, you just have to figure out what your baby likes.

You can also do different variations of tummy time to help change it up for your baby. You can place them on your chest while you talk to them or play with small toys. You can sit with your knees bent up, place them against your thighs facing away from you with their arms over your knees. With this position, you could trying holding a sensory book in front of them or playful hand puppets to keep them engaged. There are also other things to help smaller babies until they have built up a little strength. You can roll up a small towel and place it under their chest, making sure their arms are up over it by their face (Or they make little tummy time pillows that serve the same purpose).

Tummy time is so important. Our son developed a very flat head because we did not do enough tummy time. He had to have a cranial helmet to help reshape his head. You think your baby does not like tummy time. Let me tell you, your baby will really not like wearing a helmet for 23 hours a day. Do the tummy time and avoid having to put your baby in a cranial helmet. They are not fun for your baby, they get very hot, and they are usually not covered by insurance. If your child is anything like mine, they will also not understand that when the helmet comes off, it actually hurts pretty bad when you hit your head. Thankfully, our son has a nice round head now but we could have saved a lot of time, money, and hassle if we would have done more tummy time. You can do this! Tummy time! Tummy time! Keep an eye on your baby’s developmental milestones and the shape of their heads (they can change quickly). Your baby can do more than you think. You got this momma!